By HUNTER O. LYLE
HINSDALE, NY – Sports, like life, is filled with highs and lows. Peaks and valleys. For the Allegany-Limestone/Hinsdale football team, who were standing upon a summit after the first week of the season, their next steps along the trail were a descent, one that saw them come up shy in a grind-it-out 35-12 defeat to Chautauqua Lake/Westfield/Brocton.
One week prior, the Gators had reason to celebrate. After “taking their lumps” in their winless return to 11-man football last season, A-L was finally able to dish it out, beating Cardinal O’Hara by 54 points to notch the inaugural win.
“It was good for us to start the season that way. Our guys came out, played a good, hard football game. Everything last week was great,” said Allegany-Limestone/Hinsdale head coach Marcus Grove. “It was exactly what we needed to start the season, especially when you come into Week Two with a strong league opponent.”
The Gators’ next matchup was of a different ilk. Not only were they facing their initial Class C South matchup of the year, but A-L was doing so against a team who finished 11-1 in 2025 and who were looking to bounce back after a Week One loss. And Chautauqua Lake quickly put their finger print, as well as footprints, on the game.
Using a varied attack that saw big breakaways both in the air on the ground, the Eagles swiftly advanced up the field on their initial drive of the night. A 22-yard carry from Tristen Gebbs, which was coupled with a block in the back call on the Gators, put Chautauqua Lake on the goalline before they punched in the first touchdown of the night in the first three minutes of play.
After being forced off the field with a three-and-out during their opening possession, A-L seemed poised to return the favor, holding the Eagles to a fourth-and-nine situation on their side of the field. However, finding a receiver wide open in the secondary, the Eagles escaped being stumped and instead went 56-yards downfield and into the endzone, going up 14-0 with just under six minutes to play in the first quarter.
Feeling the flames already, A-L leaned into their man under center.
With their run game failing to produce positive yards, the spotlight went to Tayden Margeson, the Gators’ young but experienced quarterback. Initially going down to third-and-13 on the second drive of the night, Margeson laced up a pass and found Greg Peck downrange who came down with the ball, turned a corner and took it 78 yards to the house.
Immediately after, the defense found their moment to rally as well. Holding the Eagles in check for the first time all night, A-L stalled them on a fourth-and-one, taking over on downs at midfield. Continuing to lean on their passing game, which immediately produced a 15-yard gain from Peck on the opening snap and a 20-yard gain soon after, the Gators marched downfield. Early in the second quarter, Margeson once again put the ball in the endzone, connecting with Ryan Callen for a 27-yard touchdown.
“As a sophomore, (Margeson) is playing like a junior or senior. He’s a gamer. He works really hard in practice, goes to off-season camps all the time. He’s really committed to his craft,” said Grove. “We’re proud of him for really taking the reins on offense and being a leader. He’s a guy we’re really going to have to lean on if we want our offense to go.”
However, their momentum soon dissipated as things began to get hairy. A 40-yard kickoff return from the Eagles and simultaneous block in the back call against A-L put Chautauqua Lake just eight yards away from the goalline, which they crossed one snap later, while a Gator fumble on their own first snap of the next drive once again saw the Eagles perched within the red zone.
Although they were able to stave off their opponents from adding to the current nine-point deficit, A-L’s white-knuckle defense – which produced back-to-back stops on the goalline via Nolan Zink endzone interception and a fourth-and-one halting on the one-yard line – could only compensate for their lagging offense for so long.
Struggling to break past midfield over the course of the next two drives, the Gators’ second quarter woes culminated in a failed fourth-and-inches-brute-force carry up the middle. Turning the ball over on downs on their own 28-yard-line, they watched as Chautauqua Lake once again turned their shortcomings into points, cashing in on one last touchdown with a minute left in the half. Entering the break, A-L looked up at a 28-12 deficit.
“A lot of our mistakes (in the first half) were turnovers, not taking care of the football, some penalties, some negative plays, so our message at halftime was to try to clean that stuff up,” said Grove. “We wanted to clean that up, start to establish a run game so we could get our pass game up again.”
Entering the third, the Gators’ approach was methodical and incremental. Swapping between their men in the backfield and their men downrange, as well as a renewed effort from Margeson’s own mobility, A-L slowly crept across the field, burning almost eight minutes off the clock as they chunked their way down to within reach of the endzone.
However, standing just two yards away from what would have been their third score of the night, the Gators’ wave crashed just shy. A tackle-for-loss set them back five yards and while they were able to make up ground, their entry to the endzone was ultimately denied. Unbeknownst to them, that was the last time they would cross midfield.
Having firm control of the lead and a productive ground game, Chautauqua Lake began systematically burning time off the clock. Although they wouldn’t score on their next drive, being held to their first punt of the night, they stunted A-L thereafter before taking possession for nearly eight minutes to start the fourth.
With a large gap to fill and little time to do so, A-L ultimately succumbed to the inevitable, suffering their first loss of the season.
Margeson finished with 218 passing yards, completing 12 of his 19 attempts (63 percent) for two touchdowns. Peck came away with 155 receiving yards off of six receptions, while Callen had three receptions and 42 yards. Both scored touchdowns during the loss.
Looking ahead, the road does not get any easier for the Gators. Their next four contests come with Class C South ramifications, including Week Three’s road game against Southwestern/Frewsburg (1-1). However, the key to success in Grove’s mind, is a shallow field of depth as far as the calendar is concerned.
“We just have to take it day by day. We have to find what we do well and continue to fine tune on that. We have to clean some stuff up, offensively and defensively,” said Grove. “I think our message moving forward is just matching physicality. Chautauqua Lake always has good teams and they always come ready to play, and we need to flip that on ourselves to get more physical and continue to buy into that mentality.”
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